Overcome DiabesityYours in Good Health2012-07-02T23:08:34Zhttp://overcomediabesity.com/feed/atom/WordPressDiabeticMamahttp://overcomediabesity.com/?p=11262012-07-02T23:08:34Z2012-07-02T23:08:34ZGlaxo Smith Kline, maker of diabetes drug Avandia, has just been convicted of fraud and fined $3 billion dollars. They have admitted that they did not accurately report safety data to the FDA.

Does that sound like a lot of money to you? Well, GSK doesn’t seem worried about it at all. According to BBC News, they’ve issued a statement saying they’d pay the fines out of “existing cash resources.”

What this tells me is that the profits from the sales of Avandia have been so enormous that the company calculated it was better off paying a three billion dollar fine than doing the right thing.

All the more reason to take control of your Type 2 diabetes yourself and not rely on big pharma.

“Remember the first thing your doctor told you when you were diagnosed with diabetes? Start exercising, and eat healthy.

“It was true then, and it’s true now. But it’s hard to change our habits once we’ve formed them, even if we know that eating foods that are high in fiber and low in fat really will do us a world of good.

“Why not start today and work toward healthy eating? The benefits are better than ever. A study in Diabetologia from 2011 found that people who committed to a 600-calorie-a-day diet could improve the function of their liver and pancreas and eventually reverse their diabetes.

“You should consult your doctor before attempting such a diet, but it’s encouraging to know that the food you eat can make such a big difference.

“Follow the same nutritional tips that have always worked. Seek out fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Avoid potatoes, white bread and other foods high on the glycemic index. Choose food that is high in soluble fiber; it will help slow your digestion of sugars.

“As your diet improves and fat melts away from your liver and pancreas, your body should become more sensitive to insulin and your pancreas should produce more insulin.

“You may even get to stop taking diabetes medication. (Talk to your doctor first, of course.)

“Diabetes medication can be very effective at helping patients control their blood sugar, but you’ll want to be aware of the dangerous side effects that come with some of them.

“Actos (pioglitazone) is the most popular type 2 diabetes drug in the world, but it’s also among the most dangerous.

“It has been linked to eye disease, bone fractures, heart failure — and even Actos bladder cancer. Thousands of patients have filed Actos Lawsuits after suffering from the medication.

“Avandia has serious cardiovascular side effects and potentially life-threatening complications. More than 13,000 lawsuits have been filed against it.

“Together with your doctor, you can find a diet, exercise program and medication that are right for you. You’re on the path to healthy living.”

— William Richards

William Richards is a writer for Drugwatch.com. He uses his journalism background to investigate dangerous drugs and promote consumer awareness to better the community.

]]>0DiabeticMamahttp://overcomediabesity.com/?p=11192012-05-11T19:34:22Z2012-05-11T19:34:22ZAfter moving from Florida to Panama, learning to eat healthful, nutritious foods is a bit of a challenge.

The good news is, I’m making progress.

Fresh Fruits and Vegetables

Many of the things I took for granted in the US — a wide assortment of fresh vegetables all year round, for example — simply aren’t available here. They might be in Panama City, but I’m four hours away from the capital in a smallish town and they’re certainly not available here.

This morning my husband went to the store early and came back with a big grin. He’d found some good-looking broccoli and cauliflower for the first time. Up to now, the broccoli we’ve seen has been wilted and almost black on top. And cauliflower? Don’t ask. . .

The only veggies I can really count on finding, consistently, are tomatoes and peppers. They’re available in abundance, and they’re cheap, cheap, cheap. I can buy a bag of plum or regular tomatoes (I’m guessing they’re about two pounds) for $1. Ditto green peppers. Or I can get a bag of mixed tomatoes, peppers and onions for a buck.

The only lettuce is iceberg. There’s no spinach, no other leafy greens. The only corn they grow goes to feed livestock, so if I want corn it has to come from the freezer or the can.

Fruits are a different story, though. They’re plentiful. We’ve been picking papayas from our own tree, and mangos are everywhere. Pineapple and plantains are plentiful, bananas are available if you know where to look. Other fruits — apples, plums, and so on, are easy to find.

There’s a local fruit called a guayaba that’s supposed to be full of anti-oxidants. You have to peel the outside, and inside is a firm-fleshed fruit filled with small seeds. Think blackberry or raspberry seeds, just a titch bigger. It’s quite tasty and refreshing.

Meats and Proteins

The good news is, quality of meats and eggs is high.

We’re on the Azuero Peninsula, and they raise cattle in this part of the country.

Cattle here graze the fields. Chickens run around everywhere, even in our residential neighborhood. We’ve purchased chicken breasts that are very tasty and have a lot less fat on them than what we’re used to getting in the US, and my husband is especially impressed with the quality of the ground beef.

It’s flavorful and lean. Best of all, it’s only $1.92/lb.!

We tried some local bacon. It comes in rounds, not strips (but we’re talking the bacon-with-fat here, not Canadian bacon), and cooks up into a tasty breakfast treat.

But the best protein source here, in my opinion, is the eggs.

Just the regular, run-of-the-mill eggs you get in the grocery store have deep orange yolks, indicating they’re bursting with nutrients.

]]>0DiabeticMamahttp://overcomediabesity.com/?p=11082012-04-14T17:55:33Z2012-04-14T17:55:33ZI’ve been using brain entrainment for a couple years now. It provides all the physical benefits of deep meditation without the learning curve.

When I listened to my first entrainment track it sent me into the deepest, most restful sleep I’d enjoyed in months — maybe years. Now that I’ve been listening to entrainment tracks every day, they don’t have the same kind of dramatic impact they did when I started.

But that’s a good thing.

When I started entrainment, I was battling depression and some ongoing chronic health issues.

I was chronically sleep deprived. Either I couldn’t fall asleep because my brain was racing, or I couldn’t stay asleep.

I was very anxious, and I felt as though my nerves were on edge almost all the time.

Now I’m sleeping better, I’m no longer depressed, and my health is substantially better. I almost never get that edgy feeling any more, and I’m able to take life’s curves in stride much better.

Do I still need entrainment? Could I stop?

Good questions.

The short answer is, yes, I probably could.

The long answer is, why would I want to?

Just because I’m not experiencing the same dramatic changes I noted initially doesn’t mean it’s not still helping me.

Frankly, I like feeling calm and in control. I like that I don’t feel on the verge of tears several times a day. I like that I’m getting better quality sleep.

How Does Entrainment Work?

To put it very simply, entrainment helps you produce more of the hormones that calm you down, smooth you out and help your body refresh and renew.

Other benefits include:

Stress reduction

Relaxation

Visualization

Peak Concentration

Enhanced Memory

Enhanced Learning Ability

Better quality sleep

Better blood pressure control

Reduced insulin resistance

Improved heart rate

There are two entrainment products I use. Click here to find out more about them.

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0DiabeticMamahttp://overcomediabesity.com/?p=11002012-04-05T12:30:41Z2012-04-05T12:30:41ZFrom the town of Las Tablas, Panama

A few weeks ago moved from Florida to Panama.

I’ve been here three weeks now, and eating has been an interesting challenge. . .

I flew into Panama City and spent one night there before going to Las Tablas. I arrived here in the late afternoon, and the next morning I woke up early — about 6 AM — feeling sick as a dog.

Something I had eaten or drunk did me in.

I spent the day groaning in my hotel room. Fortunately by the following day I was feeling better, and was back to normal within a couple of days.

I had hoped this move would be good for my health

So far, not so much. For starters, I spent the first 2-1/2 weeks in hotels, forced to eat all my meals in restaurants. And while there are plenty of wonderful restaurants in Panama City, when you get into the country they all offer pretty much the same things.

And none of the things they offer are vegetables.

The more forward-looking places will serve an ensalada verde, or green salad. It consists of iceberg lettuce, two very thin slices of tomato, and possibly two very thin slices of cucumber. Sometimes onion slices are included as well.

Cooked veggies? I haven’t seen any.

The picture above shows the healthiest restaurant meal I’ve been served since arriving in Panama. Scary, no?

The grilled chicken (pollo a la plancha) was absolutely wonderful. It came with about 1-1/2 cups of white rice (you can find brown in the grocery store) and the teeny little salad you see. The little things on top of the tomato were kernels of corn (canned, I think).

I ate the chicken and the salad, and a few bites of the rice.

So it was a huge relief to find a house to rent and be able to get into my own kitchen.

In the grocery stores, vegetables are, well, pathetic is the word that comes to mind. So I need to find the best farm stands to get good produce.

Fortunately with all this, I’ve been getting more exercise. I’ve been walking a lot more, just to get around town, so my glucose numbers haven’t suffered too much.

Moving to a new place presents its own unique challenges when it comes to diet. Even if you’re just moving from one town to another in the same area, you need to find different sources for foods that will nourish you. When you move to a different country, though, the challenges become much bigger.

I’ll keep you posted. . .

]]>0DiabeticMamahttp://overcomediabesity.com/?p=10872012-03-22T12:20:29Z2012-03-22T12:20:29ZThe beta test group I mentioned a while back has wrapped up, and I’m now free to share more about it.

During the test period I shed just under 15 pounds, my fasting glucose dropped from between 115-120 to around 90-92, I felt more energetic, I was sleeping better, and I felt more cheerful and optimistic.

Quite an improvement in just a few short weeks.

It wasn’t an easy program (although I found it easier than the Ultra Simple Diet plan I had written about previously).

But, man, did it get results!

Here’s the outline:

First, spend a couple of weeks eliminating all sorts of baddies from your diet including sugar and caffeine

Next, spend four weeks following a food plan designed to actually reverse your Type 2 diabetes

If your case is stubborn or you’re still not where you want to be, repeat for another four weeks

If you’re happy with results, gradually reintroduce a few foods and see how you tolerate them. Eliminate any that cause inflammation, blood sugar spikes or other symptoms

Rinse and repeat as needed

Oh, you want details? There are plenty of details to be had. You can find them all in the book, The Blood Sugar Solution by Dr. Mark Hyman.

I’m a big fan of Dr. Hyman’s. He’s a functional medicine doc, and his approach is practical, pragmatic and it works. He’s more concerned with helping you achieve health than he is with medicating disease, and he believes your fork is your most important weapon in the fight against diabesity.

He’s been all over the talk shows and the news with this book, and deservedly so.

You can order the book from Amazon.com, and I heartily recommend it. (If you order from the link below, I’ll earn a tiny commission. It helps me keep this site going.)

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0DiabeticMamahttp://overcomediabesity.com/?p=10762012-03-08T01:30:08Z2012-03-08T01:30:08ZSleep. We all need it and most of us don’t get enough of it. Here’s a great infographic that explains the problems caused by sleep deprivation.

]]>0DiabeticMamahttp://overcomediabesity.com/?p=10712012-01-05T18:36:07Z2012-01-05T18:36:07ZAnybody who doesn’t think diet and diabesity go together hasn’t been paying attention.

I posted recently about this new beta test program I was in. The food plan eliminated all the major inflammatory and addictive stuff that Americans tend to ingest — gluten, dairy, caffeine and sugar for starters — for six weeks.

After a very short time on this plan, my fasting glucose, which had been hovering between 115-120 for months, dropped. Then it dropped some more. I was getting readings of 91, 92. Big difference.

Then I went away for the holidays to visit family. While there, I did my best but it was impossible to stick with my food plan. Fasting glucose shot right back up to the high hundred-and-teens. Within a couple of days I had gained back 3 pounds.

I’ve been home now for less than 48 hours. This morning, my reading was 102. Not where I want it to be, but a big drop from just a few days before. And the only difference was diet.

I haven’t weighed myself yet, but judging by the way my clothes are fitting most of that excess poundage is melting away as well.

]]>0DiabeticMamahttp://overcomediabesity.com/?p=10652011-11-14T17:03:51Z2011-11-14T17:03:51ZThis beta test program I’m in is really working. I’m losing weight, my blood pressure (never a problem, but had been running a little high) is dropping. And yesterday morning I was doing the happy dance around my house.

Why? Because my fasting blood glucose was 92. Ninety Two.

ADA (American Diabetes Association) guidelines say a fasting glucose of between 120-140 is “normal” for someone with diabetes.

Wish I could tell you more about this program — and I will as soon as my obligations to the program have ended.

The goal of the program? To reverse diabesity.

Stay tuned — and I’ll stay smiling.

]]>0DiabeticMamahttp://overcomediabesity.com/?p=10532011-11-02T01:23:49Z2011-11-02T01:23:49ZIt’s been a while since I posted here, friends. I apologize for my absence — I got completely off track. My eating plan fell apart, exercise fell apart, I gained back a few pounds. . . you get the idea.

But now, happily, I’m back on track.

I’ve been chosen to participate in a beta study group for a doc who’s about to publish a book on how to reverse diabesity. I can’t say much about program I’m on, because I signed a non-disclosure agreement. But I lost four pounds the first week, and my glucose is low.

In fact, the other morning my fasting glucose was below 100 for the first time I can remember. (It was only 99, but still, that’s below 100, right?)

My blood pressure is down as well.

And the best news of all? I’m feeling (comparatively) energetic and optimistic again.

I’ll try to be better about posting.

Has your eating or exercise plan gotten derailed recently? How did you get back on track? Leave a comment. . .

]]>0DiabeticMamahttp://overcomediabesity.com/?p=10112010-11-15T20:36:55Z2010-11-15T20:36:55ZA few days ago my oldest son sent me a link to an article on CNN.com. The article is titled “Twinkie Diet Helps Nutrition Professor Lose 27 Pounds.” It’s been garnering a lot of internet attention, and shows up on Technorati’s Top 100 Blogs page as an “influential” post.

I can see it now – millions of unhealthy, obese Americans rushing out to the nearest 7-11 to stock up on these new diet foods, then wondering why they got sicker and fatter than ever.

Whatever the professor’s results from his 10-week junk-food binge, it’s not sustainable either as a weight-loss method or a lifestyle.

Lots of health bloggers have been writing about his experiment. There are good analyses here and here from people with science credentials.

I would like to point out that one person’s anecdote is not science – any more than my assertion that I gained 27 pounds eating a Twinkie. (Since I don’t eat them at all, that would be hard to do). I do know that for many years I’ve gained weight so easily, and lost it with such difficulty, that I’ve often told people I can gain 5 pounds just filling in the word “brownie” on a crossword puzzle.

I’ve seen my sister in tears because she couldn’t lose weight on a very reduced-calorie diet while swimming for about an hour each day. I’ve felt helpless for years as all my efforts at “sensible” weight loss plans accomplished nothing and I got sicker and sicker.

Heck, with all that I’ve learned in the past few years, I still am having a tough time losing weight, although it is coming off s-l-o-w-l-y.

Frankly, I think the professor, Mark Haub, has set nutrition back decades with his wacky experiment and the irresponsible publicity that followed.

That said, we’ll be taking a closer look at Mr. Haub’s junk-food binge over the coming weeks to see what its likely influence would be on his health in the long term. Not surprisingly, the words “leaky gut,” “diabetes,” and “chronic disease” will come into play.